Method of making pen nibs



March 16, 1943. 1A SHEA i 2,313,778

M METHOD 0F MAKING PEN. NIBS Filed Feb. 28,1940

. I M ATTORNEY.

Patented Mar. 16, 1943 UNITED STATES PATENT OF E Mirrnon or MAKINGPENNIBS John A. Shea, Jersey City, N. .l. Application February 28, 1940,Serial No. 321,218

3 Claims. (01. 113-32) This invention relates to the manufacture offountain pen nibs by automatic machinery, and more particularly itrelates to an intermediate step in such manufacture.

The making of pen nibs and methods of making the same have beendescribed in my earlier patents, Nos. 2,195,430, dated April 2, 1940,and

2,208,477, dated Ju1y16, 1940, respectively, and as before stated, thisparticular invention is direct-v ed to an intermediate step in a processof that kind.

More particularly, the present invention has for its object to form aflat winged tip into'a V- shape winged tip, and the invention also hasfor its object to, close the Vwinged tip, preparatory to its next stepin the process. The object of this invention is to mold the wings of aflat wing tip pen into writing condition by a V-shaping and a. finalcold forging or molding, and at the same time additionally hardening andsmoothing the same. Furthermore, the invention consists of an improveddevice for making the foregoing winged tips.

The invention" will be more fully described hereinafter, embodimentsthereof pointed out in the drawing, and the invention will be finallyset forth in the claims.

Inthe accompanying drawing:

- Figure 1 is a plan view of part of the improved device supporting awinged tip in flat form;

Figure 2 is an end view thereof;

Figure 3 is an end view showingthe next step inthe operation of thedevice;

Figure 4' is a plan view after the operation in Figure 3 has beencompleted; Figure 5 is a sectional view of another improved device whichhas for its object to bringthe V shape nib tip togetherso that the wingsare approximately parallel with each other, this view being taken on theline 55 of FigureA;

Figure 61s a similar view showing the end of the. operationiwith thewings parallel with each other; Figure '7 is a section partly inelevation of the winged'tip shown in side View, taken on the line -1 ofFigure 6;

"Figure 8 is a view of the top member shown in Figure 5;

Figure 9is a sectional view of the top member shown in Figure 8, takenon the line 9-9 of Figure 8; t

Figure lllis a section taken online 10- -16 of Figure9;and H V U jFigure 11 is a plan view of another nib end showing the winged tipsprovided with an intermediate slot.

Similarcharacters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughoutthe various views.

Referring to the drawing, and more particularly to Figures 1 to 4 andFigure 11, the nib end 15 has two winged tips 16 and IT in. the sameplane with each other and with the nib l5. This isthe form in which thenib has been made up to this stage of the automatic manufacture.

The exterior contour of the winged tip I6 and II has been hardened asshown by the lines 18, and at the same time all the corners and edgeshave been rounded and smoothed.

InFigurel is shown one form of nib end in which the two winged tips 15and I1 form one integral part. 7

In Figure 11 another form isshown in which the nib l5a is provided withtwo spaced winged tips Hiaand Ila with an intermediate slot l9therebetween. The configuration ofthis slot It! may be varied or changedfrom that shown in Figure 11. The winged tips have also been rounded,smoothed and hardened as indicated by the lines [8a. They can. extend totheapex.

The object of the next step of this automatic process of making fountainpen nibs by automatic machinery is to give the winged tips l6 and I! apreliminary shape in the form of a V. This is done by means ofparticular devices such as shown in Figures 2 and 3. The base member 32of this device consists of two platform portions l9 and 20, each ofwhich supports one winged tip. Between these platform portions [9 and20, a cut out 2| is provided which has inclined sides 22 and 23,converging toward each other and merging into other inclined sides 25and 28, having a sharper angularity in respect to a vertical line thanthe inclination of the lines 22 and 23.

Above the base members l920 as just described and above the superimposedwinged tips placed thereon is aplunger member 21 having a narrowerportion 28' terminating in a V-shaped end portion 29, the apex,30 of theV being sharp or knife-like. The member 21 is suitably engaged by aplunger of apunch of any weii known construction, 'not shown, and themember 21 is thereby caused to descend and have its sharp knife-likeedge 39 engage the median'line between the two winged tips I6 and ll,andin the further downward movementof the member 21 into a V shapedconfiguration as shown in Figure 3 when looking at the end thereof, orshown in Figure 4 when looking downwardly from the top thereof.

If an integral winged tip, such as shown in Figure 1, be used, the metalbetween the winged tips l6 and I! will be scored as shown by the scoreline 33 in Figure 4.

What has been described in connection with the form of winged tips shownin Figure 1 takes place also when a winged tip such as shown in Figure11, is acted upon. In this case the score line 33a will be also present.

Having shaped the nib tips into the preliminary and intermediate Vformation, the next operation by an adjacent die is to bring. the wingedtips into parallel position in respect to each other. By virtue of theaction of the member 21, with its compressing end member 29, the low ersurfaces of thewinged tips l6 and I! are rounded as shown in Figure 3 bythe character 35, it being noted in Figure 3 that agap 35 in the basemember 32 remains unfilled by any metal. To provide a surface for thisrounded portion 35, the device shown in Figure 5 has a base member 31with a rounded recess 38, the configuration of which is substantiallythe same as the rounded portion 35 of the winged tips. The upper memberof the device shown in Figure 5 indicated by 39, is provided with tworecesses 40 and 4| with a partition 32 therebetween. These recesses 40and 4| are each curved with their exterior end portions flush with thelower surface 43 of the upper member 39, Whereas the inward ends of thecurved portions where they merge in the partition 42 are inset from thesurface 43 of the member 39. This arrangement of the ends of therecesses is for the purpose of having the outermost ends of the curvedportions engage the outermost ends of the winged tips as shown in Figure5. When the upper member 39 is moved downwardly in the direction of thearrows 44, by a suitable plunger of a suitable punch, not shown, the twooutermost ends of the winged tips I6 and I! are brought into contiguousrelationship or parallel with each other as shown in Figure 6. By themoving of the outermost ends of the winged tips along the curvedrecesses 4B and 6! into their parallel positions, the pressure therebyexerted' and the downward pressure of the'member 39, with its partitionor ridge 42 between the winged tips, serves to smooth and round andadditionally harden the contiguous edges and inside of the winged tips.In other words, the upper part of the space between the winged tips, thepartition or ridge 42 serves to smooth out these portions at the end ofthe space. When these two winged tips have been brought together and theridge or partition has acted upon the curved portions at the end of thespace between the winged tips, these curved portions are smoothed andhardened by the pressure exerted by the ridge or partition 42. This isclearly shown in Figure 6, and when the winged tips have been broughtinto the position in Figure 6, they are ready to be slitted' by shearingin the next step of the automatic, manufacturing process.

- By referring to Figure 8, it will be seen that this partition or ridge42 terminates in two curved portions indicated by 48 and 49, and thesealso have a smoothing effect upon the end of the winged tips. The basemember 3 has a rib 50 as shown in Figures 4 and 7, and when this ribacts upon the lower part of the winged tips,

it leaves a smaller recessed portion 5!, as shown in Figure 7.

Heretofore, wing tip pens have been formed in a two-stage bendingoperation, being first bent in the form of a V on two bend lines by ablunt edge punch. The wings were then closed by bending again on thesame two lines utilizing jaws and bending from the sides for thispurpose. This method naturally puts undue stress and strain on the tips,because of being bent twice on the same lines. And it has not beenpossible to bend metals such a stainless steel of a very hard andbrittle nature containing approximately 4% moly without cracking.

' Only one bend line is utilized which forms the apex ofthe V when thetip with its wings is bent, by pressure applied to the face of the nib.The

bend line is parallel with but spaced from the longitudinal axis of thepen nib, said longitudinal axis being between the face and back of thepen nib. By the bending of the flat blank the bend line on the face ofthe nib is compressed or lessened while'the back of the tiptof the nibis extended. When the original blank is thus formed into a V shapethereafter it is subjected to a cold forging molding process whichcompletes the bending of the bend line and brings the wings at each sideof the tip into a position where the wings are substantially parallelwith, each other. While this second bending is taking place the coldforging molding process compresses the metal of the wings with so muchof the tip as is common to both of the wings and thereby the newlyformed tip of the pen is coined or molded and brought into a diiferentstate than. if the wings were merely bent into position. By the methoddescribed in which the preliminary V bending first takes place andthereafter the coining operation is employed, the various pressuresbecome equalized in such a manner throughout the wings and tips that themetal is not subjected to undue stress and strain. By this method it hasbeen possible to successfully form pen tips having a writing surfacefrom the particularly hard and brittle 4% moly stainless steel used forthe pen blanks.

Thus, it will be seen from the foregoing that applicant has devised anentirely new method of molding the fiat wing tips of a pen into writingcondition while at the same time additionally smoothing and hardeningthe same.

It will be noted that the preliminary shaping is done by a knife-likeblade along only a single line, as is clearly shown by 33 in Figure 4.Prior methods of closing the wings have all utilized jaws to bend thewings in from the sides. This is impractical in a strip method such asapplicants, and therefore after the preliminary shaping, he has deviseda cold-forged molding operation which has a number of distinctive andimproved'features. First, by discarding the old type jaws and utilizingpressure from above the Wings, he is enabled to smooth the wings at themost vital point, that is, theinside of the wings where the writing isdone, the improper smoothing of this part being the principal reason'for the scratching of fountain pen nibs. Secondly, due to the pressureexerted in molding these wings into writing condition, and additionallysmoothing the same, thus compressing the metal, they are additionallyhardened, which produces a pen with greater wearing qualities and longerlife. Thirdly, by this molding or cold-forging, applicant attains theeffect of a lathe-ground gold iridium tipped pen nib. In carrying thisout, the pen which was bent into its initial position of a V is nowclosed, so as to bring the legs of the V in substantial parallelrelation with each other. In other words, the V inclination is changedto a parallel relationship.

Reference is made herewith to my co-pending applications, Serial Nos.325,105, filed Mar. 21, 1940, and 321,217, filed Feb. 28, 1940,respectively, and both to issue on the same date, and topendingapplication, Serial No. 357,926, filed Sept. 23, 1940.

I have described an embodiment of my invention, but it will be clearthat changes may be made within the principle of the inventiondescribed, without departing from the scope of the subjoined claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In the manufacture of a wing tip pen from a fiat blank of metalhaving a tip and lateral wings extending longitudinally of the body ofthe blank, the back and face surfaces of the tip and wings being inparallel planes spaced apart the thickness of the metal, with thelongitudinal axis of the tip and wings spaced intermediate said spacedplanes, the step which consists in subjecting the face of the tip to apressure along a single line parallel with said axis and centrallydisposed on the face of the tip, simultaneously subjecting the backs ofthe wings to pressures laterally inwards, the back of the tip beingunopposed by any pressure, all of said pressures acting to shape theflat tip and wings to a V shaped member, with the metal along said bendline on the face compressed and the metal on the back of the tipextended, then subjecting the back of said tip and wings to pressuresmoving the wings towards each other to substantial parallelism, and atthe same time subjecting each of the free ends of the wings to apressure towards its base and the bent tip common to both wings to apressure towards each end of the wings, for compressing the material ofthe wings.

2. In the manufacture of a wing tip pen from a flat blank of metalhaving a tip and lateral wings extending longitudinally of the body ofthe blank, the back and face surfaces of the tip and wings being inparallel planes spaced apart the thickness of the metal, with thelongitudinal axis of the tip and wings spaced intermediate said spacedplanes, the step which consists in subjecting the face of the tip to apressure along a single line parallel with said axis and centrallydisposed on the face of the tip, simultaneously subjecting the backs ofthe wings to pressures laterally inwards, the back of the tip beingunopposed by any pressure, all of said pressures acting to shape theflat tip and wings to a V'shaped member, with the metal along said bendline on the face compressed and the metal onthe back of the tipextended, then subjecting the back of said tip and wings to pressuresmoving the wings towards each other to substantial parallelism,simultaneously subjecting each of the free ends of the wings to apressure towards its base and the bent tip common to both wings to apressure towards each of the wings, and finally subjecting the adjacentends of the wings at their inner sides to pressures to round theadjacent ends at their inner sides and smooth any rough edges of thewings forming the writing surfaces.

3. In the manufacture of wing tip pens from a flat blank havinglaterally extending wings in the plane of the blank at the end intendedto form the writing tip, one face of the blank being the front and theother face of the 'olank being the back, which consists in subjectingsaid tip with its lateral wings to a pressure to bend into parallelismwith each other to bring the front faces of the wings to a positionadjacent each other, and to bring the free ends and the bent portion atthe back into substantially a vertical line at right angles to the faceof the flat blank, the said bent back being rounded by such bending, andsubjecting said wings to a compression action along said vertical line,applied only to the adjacent free ends of the wings and to the roundedexterior back end of the tip, to restrainingly compress the metal at thefree ends of the wings and at the back end of the tip, with thelongitudinal outer sides of the wings unrestrained and free to expand toform an oval form, whereby the wings are reduced in size in thedirection of said straight line from each of the free ends to saidrounded back end, and said free ends and rounded back end are coldforged hardened to form the writing surfaces of the wings.

J OHN A. SHEA.

